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Origin and history

The Chartreuse de Bellary, or Chartreuse de l'Annunciation de la Sainte-Vierge, was founded in 1209 by Hervé IV de Donzy and his wife Mahaut de Courtenay to obtain a papal dispensation avoiding the cancellation of their marriage (consanguinity to the 4th degree). Located 7 km from the village of Châteauneuf-Val-de-Bargis, isolated in the forest, it became a prosperous monastery before being looted during the Hundred Years War (1405, 1423) and burned by Calvinists in 1568. The monks, expelled several times, returned in 1602 after decades of abandonment.

The initial construction (1209–1300) followed the traditional plan of the Chartreuses: church, large cloister with 11 cell houses, refectory, and chapels. The stone buildings replaced a first wooden structure between 1230 and 1255, under the priorities of Dom Géralde and Dom Bartholomew. In the 16th century, after destruction, prior Dom Guillaume Bruneau rebuilt the small cloister (1509–1525) and cells. A fire in 1559 and the wars of Religion delayed its restoration, partially completed thanks to royal gifts (François II authorized woodcuts in 1568).

In the 18th century, the Chartreuse played a major economic role in Burgundy, with annual revenues rising from 15,000 to 20,411 pounds (1752–90). She was the main local landowner, employing many inhabitants. In 1788 a monumental staircase was added to the west pavilion, bearing the date on its gate. Sold as a national property in 1791 at Domenge Pic de la Mirandole for £100,200, it became a farm. Today, it is privately owned and has preserved protected elements since 1971: the large chapel, the sixteenth century refectory, and its entrance gate.

Bellary's etymology came from the old French Beaularriz ("land in waste land"), although a legend evokes the laughter of Mahaut de Courtenay ("the beautiful has laughed"). The site also housed a low house for the conversing brothers and a St. Lawrence chapel, 500 m west. Its tabernacle-table (16th century) is now on display at the Auguste-Grasset Museum in Varzy, and its entrance gate adorns the Beaumont-la-Ferrière cemetery.

Architecturally, Bellary illustrates the evolution of the Chartreuses: strict medieval plan (cloisters, individual cells), Renaissance adaptations (refectory, prioral home), and classical beautifications (doric portail of 1788). Repeated ransacks and reconstructions have erased part of its heritage, but the remaining buildings bear witness to its spiritual and economic importance, from the 13th century Crusaders to the 18th century agricultural revolutions.

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